Hider: Tom K6VCR


There is always a plan. Which continues to evolve. Until a day or two before the hunt.
Oh crap! Thunderstorms and flash flood warnings along with 100 plus degree heat
forecast for the desert means a complete rework.

Fall back to September 2013 with the transmitter that failed and thusly, was not
hunted nor found. Hot Springs Mountain Fire Lookout. Scott was the co-hider for that
hunt but he didn't know where I had hidden. After checking the visibility to Pathfinder
start point I decided to bounce a signal off of Santa Rosa Mountain.

I also thought it would be fun to bring back my AF6O hunt boxes. Three of the five of
them decided to participate with a bit of coaxing. I had several comments throughout
the day about various love/hate relationships with these wonderful creations. It was
fun remembering how to program them. They were each programmed with three different
identifiers running in round robin T2/22/222, T3/33/333 and T4/44/444. They performed
flawlessly.

T1 was located at 33.297055 -116.525536 on Camino San Miguel Road. It was a Picon
controlled transmitter running 25 watts to a 4 element horizontol beam with a heading
of 11 degrees. It was barely heard by N6MI at the start point and rendered a heading
of 111 degrees for the hunters. I love it when a plan comes together. The problem was
there was not enough signal.

T2/22/222 was located at 33.314544 -116.581556 on the top of Hot Springs Mountain.
It was an amplified AF6O box putting out 30 watts into an 11 element horizontolly
polarized yagi with a heading of 340 degrees (a miscalculation on my part...) It
should have been easily heard at the start point. It came on as programed and I
could here it at T1, but none of the hiders heard it. Most of you know it is a
very good T-hunt road so it took about 45 minutes to get to it and discover the
problem. The amplifier has two switches on it and two LED lights. I turned on the
switch and saw the light come on when I set it up in the morning. The switch and
corrosponding LED were for the pre-amplifier. I corrected the problem and everyond
had a loud signal at the start. To loud...Oh well.
T3/33/333 was located about two tenths of a mile off of the the road to the top. The
hiders had to traverse a very fine beam eating tree laden trail to get to this AF6O
box putting out 2 watts into a vertical dipole.

T4/44/444 was located 100 yards south of T2 up the hill. It was another AF6O box
running 2 watts into a 3 element horizontolly polarized beam laying on a rock with
a heading of 270 degrees.

T5 (the Traffic Conditions transmitter) was a squawk box with wire dipole antenna
clipped to a tree branch just off of the trail before the "rough road" near the
top of the hill.







The winners: N6MI and AB6PA with 126 miles and all 5 T's

Thank you all for coming out! 73 de Tom, K6VCR

T1
KF6GQ/KD6LAJ	115.8 miles	13:54
N6MI/AB6PA	109.0 miles	14:57
WB6JPI		177.8 miles	18:04
WA6RJN/KG6KZF	141.8 miles	18:30
N6AIN/N6EKS	DNF
N6ZHZ		DNF

T2/22/222
N6AIN/N6EKS	123.0 miles	14:55
KF6GQ/KD6LAJ	134.1 miles	15:52
WA6RJN/KG6KZF	133.3 miles	16:30
N6MI/AB6PA	125.0 miles	17:00
WB6JPI		DNF
N6ZHZ		DNF

T3/33/333
N6AIN/N6EKS	124.3 miles 	16:05
N6MI/AB6PA	124.0 miles	16:47
WA6RJN/KG6KZF	134.1 miles	17:30
KF6GQ/KD6LAJ	DNF
WB6JPI		DNF
N6ZHZ		DNF

T4/44/444
N6AIN/N6EKS	125.0 miles	15:30
KF6GQ/KD6LAJ	134.1 miles	16:20
WA6RJN/KG6KZF	133.3 miles	16:40
N6MI/AB6PA	125.0 miles	17:08
WB6JPI		DNF
N6ZHZ		DNF

T5
N6AIN/N6EKS	122.7 miles	14:35
KF6GQ/KD6LAJ	134.8 miles	15:15
WA6RJN/KG6KZF	133.7 miles	15:15
N6MI/AB6PA	126.0 miles	15:20
WB6JPI		DNF
N6ZHZ		DNF